


All The Fish in the Sea

by celluloidbroomcloset



Category: The Avengers (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Seddi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-23
Updated: 2015-06-23
Packaged: 2018-04-05 20:57:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4194624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celluloidbroomcloset/pseuds/celluloidbroomcloset
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steed and Mrs. Peel go to the zoo, where Mrs. Peel is put through her paces.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All The Fish in the Sea

“Steed, is there a particular reason you asked to meet me here?”

Emma glanced at the baboon, which made a rather lewd face. She had grown accustomed to meeting Steed in rather odd places, but this was the first time he ever summoned to the monkey cage in the middle of a chilly spring day. 

“Marvelous creatures,” replied her companion, puffing out his cheeks at the baboon. “I feel rather sorry for them. Cooped up in here while they should be clambering through the Amazon forests…” 

“Baboons are native to Africa and Asia,” said Emma absently as they walked on from the cage.

“They’re certainly not from England,” said Steed, and poked his umbrella at the sky. 

He led her from the monkey cage and down the stone path towards the aquarium building She noted with a connoisseur’s eye that he was looking rather fit and springy today, dressed in a three-piece blue suit with matching tie and bowler angled jauntily to one side. Since their relationship had progressed from the personal to the professional, she had been concerned that the two would not mingle very well. If anything their personal relationship had been deepened – not to mention enhanced – by the professional capacity in which they now worked. If Steed sometimes insisted upon taking charge in the field, as was his prerogative as the senior, trained agent, then Emma knew she could take charge in other ways.

They stopped by the leopard cage and Steed tilted his head, searching for the creature.

“We are here,” said Steed. “To meet a courier.”

“Of the furry variety?”

He gave her the side-eye.

Emma smiled. “Anything special?”

“Not particularly. Just passing on a few bits of information. I thought it might be good experience for you.”

He gave her a look scarcely different from that of the wily animal who now made its appearance, pacing down the length of the cage with as much regard for them as for two bits of shrubbery on its native plains. 

“Why do I get the sense that I’m going to do your job for you?” said Emma.

“We all must go through our paces, m’dear.”

“Mine always seem to include the menial jobs.”

They moved on past the leopard cage. 

“He’s a bit skittishy, so treat him with kid gloves,” said Steed.

“I should have brought a salt lick.” Emma glanced at the deer paddock, which did not appear to actually contain any of the animals in question. “How shall I recognize him?”

“He’ll be carrying a copy of Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book. You’ll say to him, ‘Do you know how the elephant got his trunk?’ and he’ll say, ‘The same way the salmon learned to migrate.’ ”

“You came up with this, didn’t you?”

“How did you know?”

She gave him an arch glance. “I recognized your mother wit. So after I have repeated this nonsensical password, what happens?” 

“He gives you the book, you hand over this paper containing his payment.” Steed gave her the paper he had tucked under his arm.

“That’s all?”

“That’s all.”

He held the door to the aquarium building open for her. 

No sooner had they entered the aquarium than Emma was suddenly alone. She disliked the way that Steed had of vanishing without noise. Disconcerting to be involved with a secret agent.

Locating the “little man” was not difficult. He was there, oddly conspicuous for a courier, looking at the crustaceans in the freestanding tank as though he identified with their plight. The Jungle Book poked out from under his arm. Emma made her approach carefully, taking her time to gaze at the fish in the wall tanks. There was a small knot of other people circumnavigating the aquarium that she would have to wait for before making her approach. She was halfway around the room, one eye ever on the courier, when she saw Steed by a tank that contained a number of starfish. He didn’t look at her but she knew he was keeping tabs on her every move. He pressed his face to the glass like a schoolboy on a class trip.

As soon as the group in the aquarium was gone, Emma turned to her courier. She came upon him slowly but deliberately and was soon standing next to him at the crustacean tank. He gave off an odor of fish and chips.

“Do you know how the elephant got his trunk?” she began to ask, but was distracted by a movement just beyond the tank. There was Steed again, this time imitating one of the fish that had swum too close to the glass. Emma stifled her laugh and tried again. 

“Do you know how the elephant got his trunk?” she said. 

The courier turned on her in surprise. He was a good head shorter than she was and was forced to look up into her eyes with his own beady ones.

“The same way the salmon learned to migrate,” he said in a portentous tone that would have made Emma laugh, had not Steed proceeded down the line of tanks beyond the courier’s shoulder. Her partner turned to her deliberately, puffed out his cheeks and crossed his eyes in imitation of a puffer fish. Emma giggled. The courier looked disconcerted. 

“They sent you?” he asked. “I was told to expect a man in a bowler hat.”

“He couldn’t…” Steed gave her another fish face. “…he couldn’t make it. Attack of gout.”

The courier looked concerned. Emma felt concerned, though not for the same reason. Steed was attempting to imitate a starfish against glass, his limbs splayed out and his umbrella dangling a tad lewdly from one arm. She covered her mouth.

The courier seemed to be fighting an inner battle, and Emma was certain her near hysterics were not helping. Finally, he appeared to give up and passed the book to her. She handed over the paper.

“Next time, they should warn me,” he said, a little nastily. As he crossed in front of her, Emma made a face of her own.

No sooner had the little man vanished out the glass door of the aquarium than Emma went to her partner and gave him a hard push. 

Steed laughed and seized her hand. He pulled her into a dark corner of the aquarium, wedged between the guppies and the clownfish.

“You’re a bastard,” she said. 

“Calm under pressure. If you can keep from laughing at me, you can do almost anything.”

“That’s a fine excuse,” she muttered. 

He put his arms around her. “You were marvelous.” 

“No thanks to you.” 

She couldn’t very well stay mad at him, though – not while he was gently kissing her jaw. 

“Steed, someone will see…” 

“No one here but us fish.” He gave her a quick, teasing peck on the mouth. “What are you doing tonight?” 

“I have a paper.” 

“You always have a paper. Come and spend time with the flesh and blood. Steak au poivre …” His mouth touched the corner of hers. “A bottle of Sauvignon…” Again. “…crème brulee….”

He kissed her neck, drawing her flush against him and weaving his hands under her coat.

Emma wasn’t quite certain what sounded more appetizing: the meal or the promise of what would come after. The fingers of his left hand pressed into the small of her back and made her arch against him. Even through layers of clothing, she could feel the warmth emanating from his skin.

“I’ll never get any work done with you around,” she said.

“Work is overrated, my dear.”

“I can’t have dinner with you tonight. I’m going out with a friend.”

“Friend?” Steed drew away and Emma did not miss the flash of jealousy in his eyes. She laughed. 

“Laura Beaufort, a horticulturalist friend of mine.”

“Ah.” The jealousy was gone and a slightly embarrassed look replaced it. Emma didn’t feel good about it, but she was gratified. 

“Why don’t you come along? You’d like Laura. She’s a brilliant scientist.” 

“Hm.”

Steed looked at her and she thought she detected a slight war in his grey eyes. She had never before tried to mix her life with Steed with the rest of her personal or professional life. It occurred to her that he had never met any of her friends.

The war was short-lived. 

“Certainly,” said Steed. “If you think Miss Beaufort wouldn’t mind.” 

“Laura.” Emma looped her arm around his waist. “And she’ll be thrilled to meet you.”

“You mean you’ve told her about me?”

“Not your profession, obviously. Just that I’ve been seeing a very charming civil servant.”

Steed snorted. “I’ve spent much of my career trying to escape the moniker ‘civil servant.’ ” He paused. “Seeing?” 

“Mmm.” Emma could feel his eyes on her as they walked out of the aquarium. Inexplicably, her heart contracted a fraction. 

“Seeing,” he repeated, as if testing the word. “Yes, I quite like that.” 

His arm tightened around her waist. It felt as though something had been decided in that moment, without planning and without an extended discussion, as with so much else in their lives. 

They proceeded back down the path to the monkey cages.


End file.
